How Fuel Usage Works in Flowrate (And Why It's Dangerous)

In Flowrate, fuel is your life. You start with 500 tons, and you’ll need every bit of it to survive. The challenge? Traveling between planets eats fuel fast — and only landing lets you get more.

Here’s the current burn system:

• 10 t/s passive drain in space

• +360 t/s while accelerating in space

• +7 t/s for vertical movement on a planet

• +5 t/s for horizontal movement on a planet

• +15 t/s if you had a hard landing in the last 20 seconds

• +5 t/s every real-time minute — the longer you play, the faster you burn

Fuel is measured in tons per second. If you’re not careful, you’ll run dry long before you find another safe landing.

Landing = Life

The only way to gain more fuel is by landing on planets and collecting it.
Some planets barely have any. Others might be rich — but dangerous to reach.

This forces every decision to matter:

• Is that planet worth the landing cost?

• Can I even survive the descent?

• Should I explore, or escape while I still can?

Upcoming Features

I’m planning to add systems that push skillful movement:

• Hard planetary entry = extra burn — come in smooth or lose tons

• Asteroid fields = obstacles that force clever navigation

• Gas clouds = zones of reduced burn, rewarding smart routing through space

I want flying to feel like a dangerous dance — and fuel to be the music. Panic will kill you. Precision will keep you alive.

What Do You Think?

Would you survive with 500 tons?
Would you risk a detour through an asteroid field to hit a gas cloud and save fuel?

Let me know — and thanks for reading.